Nanny pleads not guilty in stabbing deaths of children

Photographs of two children allegedly stabbed by their nanny are displayed alongside balloons and stuffed animals at a memorial outside the apartment building were they lived Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in New York. Six-year-old Lucia Krim and her 2-year-old brother, Leo, were killed in their family's apartment. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK -- A nanny accused in the stabbing deaths of two children in her care at their upscale home near Central Park pleaded not guilty Wednesday inside a hospital room where she's been treated for self-inflicted stab wounds.

Yoselyn Ortega, lying handcuffed in her hospital bed in silence, her right hand trembling, entered the plea through her defence attorney.

"I ask you to enter a not guilty plea on behalf of my client," attorney Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg said.

"My client ... sustained serious medical injuries and mental trauma," she said. "She's lying in a hospital bed. She has a neck brace, and her hand that you can see is shaking. She is in a very debilitated condition."

The judge, like two prosecutors and everyone else crowded into the room, wore a hospital gown and a blue hair net. He ordered Ortega held without bail while she undergoes a psychiatric exam.

Ortega, 50, appeared alert but didn't speak during the 10-minute hearing. The judge placed her on suicide watch.

Ortega, who's from the Dominican Republic, had a neck brace and a tube leading to her throat but breathed on her own. No wounds were visible; a white hospital blanket was pulled up to her chest.

The hospital room was sparse: There were no flowers, photos or other personal items on display.

The unusual bedside arraignment came as District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced an indictment charging Ortega with multiple counts of murder.

"This crime shocked and horrified parents around the city, many of whom entrust their children to the care of others both by necessity and by choice," Vance said in a statement. "My heart goes out to the family of those beautiful young children, and I hope that, with time, this family will heal."

Authorities allege that on the evening of Oct. 25, while the children's mother was out with a third child, Ortega repeatedly stabbed 6-year-old Lucia Krim and her 2-year-old brother, Leo Krim.

When their mother, Marina Krim, returned to the family's Manhattan home with her 3-year-old daughter, she found their bodies in the bathtub, with Ortega lying on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck, authorities said. A kitchen knife was nearby.

The children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, was away on a business trip when the killings occurred.

The couple's apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighbourhoods, a block from Central Park, near the Museum of Natural History and blocks from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The neighbourhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life there.

Some of Ortega's friends and relatives said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently, but they still couldn't believe she could have committed such a heinous act.